Christie's backward thinking; We must stop the Trump budget

A Star-Ledger article by Ted Sherman sifted through potential political favoritism and Port Authority money (“Politics & the park,” May 21). But it also cast doubt upon a stellar, cost-effective program that provides immense public benefits.

NY/NJ Baykeeper can attest that funding for the Newark Riverfront Park was a top regional open-space priority even before the Christie administration came onto the scene.

The Hudson Raritan Estuary Resources Program, or HRERP, of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey addresses environmental impacts from Port Authority facilities and activities in the waters and communities within the Port District. It has been one of the most successful and cost-effective environmental programs anywhere.

New Jersey’s $30 million share of these funds during the past decade went to acquire open space in the Meadowlands, Bergen, Middlesex, Hudson and Monmouth counties, and the extraordinary Newark Waterfront Park. Together this protected over 260 acres of land (in a region where every open acre is valuable), provided new waterfront access to millions, protected areas most prone to flooding and greatly leveraged other funding.

Community groups, natural resource agencies and elected officials all vetted the HRERP priority sites and the Newark park funding went just where it should have.

Greg Remaud, Deputy director of NY/NJ Baykeeper

Christie's backward thinking

ov. Chris Christie is “worried” about impending Medicaid cuts and their effects on the state, but still thinks that Trumpcare is superior to Obamacare.

Surely, a plan that relies on big cuts to the poor and gives big tax breaks to the very wealthy is better than one that helps the poor and asks the very wealthy to help support the less fortunate. Sarcasm is intended here, but entirely wasted on the governor.

He also thinks he is wholly responsible for the uptick in New Jersey employment and recovery, while in classic bully fashion blaming the state Legislature for any shortcomings. How short his memory is. The news conference photos, in which he is surrounded by students from a private, religious schools from Lakewood, of all places, clearly shows how little he cares about New Jersey’s public education and its quality. Clearly, not a whit.

We’ve long known the ugly truth about Christie, yet it still surprises how much more there is emerging each day. “The past is prologue” goes for him too. So, we ask ourselves what his past will be the prologue to?

Paula Zevin, Somerset

We must stop the Trump budget

The White House released its 2018 budget. The disdain it shows for children, the elderly, people with disabilities, those struggling to make ends meet — really, so many working families like yours and mine — is truly jaw-dropping. What happened to championing Americans who feel forgotten and left behind?

The White House intends to drastically cut basic assistance programs that help hardworking families put food on the table and get affordable health care. By slashing SNAP (formerly food stamps), Medicaid, Meals on Wheels and more, this budget imagines a future where millions of Americans will go to bed hungry and have nowhere to turn when they fall ill.

The national budget exists to take care of all Americans, while still providing the necessary support in the fight against poverty. While the new administration may not understand this message, I truly hope Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.) and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5th Dist.) can see the moral issues of defunding all these important anti-poverty programs. There has never been a more important time for citizens and elected officials to work together to prevent the White House from setting our anti-poverty progress back several decades.

Sunjay Menon, Closter

What do women's golfers think?

Sports columnist Steve Politi nailed it: the USGA lacks the moral fiber to do the right thing with this year’s U.S. Women’s Open and not play it on Trump National in Bedminster (“Closed stance,” May 25).

There is nothing political about the history of the man who owns it, nothing at all. It’s all about good ol’ boys pretending that they know best what’s good for the “girls” and trumpeting it to the world.

But Politi should have taken his piece one step further and interviewed, or at least gotten statements from, some of the golfers on the slate for this year’s Open. It would have been interesting to know what their positions are and how they view playing on a course owned by the misogynist in chief. Most interesting would have been to read about how they could possibly dissociate the man, the owner of this course, from the sport in this surely awkward situation. I would hazard an educated guess that they would have a hard time coming up with justifications; silence or participation signals endorsement and complicity very clearly. This is 2017, ladies.